Ocean Marina Yacht Club Platu Championship of Thailand 2022 Round 2
by Kev Scott, Ferret News 9 May 2022 04:35 BST
30 April - 2 May 2022
Day 1
The first day of any regatta is always the most difficult, while crews get used to the vagaries of the race area, settle down as a crew and hope that the recent work on their boats has improved things. As such, the organisers can provide two ways of helping: one is to make the first race a practice race only, and the second is to drop their worst score, (days two and three do not allow discards).
Four teams were very thankful. Team 258 were still in the yard being worked on at the start and missed the first race completely. Team Pine Pacific was late for the first race, and Easy Tiger suffered terminal damage to their main sail and missed a race replacing it. Team Doolalie needed a DNF discarding. After that, however, three scoring races were managed in spite of very changeable light winds.
Day 2
The weather forecast was not good, but it was correct (unfortunately!). After the first race it took 90 minutes for the wind to change course 280 degreesand rebuild into the minimum 4 kts to allow racing to begin again. One race was abandoned when the wind dropped out completely, and another cancelled during the preparatory signal on account of a sudden 90 degreesshift. Three windwards marks were set, so there was no delay for a course change of up to 30 degrees - but even then the last race of the day involved a change of course during the race.
Despite all the shenanigans, a total of five worthwhile races were run, and the regatta had begun in earnest. By this stage, team Easy Tiger were showing their wealth of experience by moving into a six point lead over K Ithinai's Pine Pacific. It is worth mentioning that K Ithinai's Platu had been sunk by lightning the week before, but Rolf Heemskerk generously lent him his Platu for the event. Rolf would normally be racing but covid rules kept him in Europe.
Day 3
This time the weather forecast was good, and accurate. Winds of 12 to 16 kts, coming through high rise buildings, meant that crews were thrown around in turbulent conditions with big changes in wind pressure and direction. This created a few 'incidents' but no protests. All boats did their turns, and tempers were kept in check. Unfortunately Team Le Vent suffered a loss of their forestay and had to retire. It bodes well for the future that a 14-year old on Easy Tiger and a 15-year old on Team FLS both managed to handle the foredeck in such difficult conditions for that job. This time it was easy to run races, and only the engine failure on the mark boat created a delay of 30 min before racing started for the day. In these conditions the "professionals" on board Easy Tiger could show that when all boats are One Design, then crew work is paramount.
As always with this Championship, the last race is a medal race carrying double points and this can often shake up the results quite a lot. This time Pine Pacific showed Easy Tiger how it was done and came in just ahead of their rivals. It was not enough to change the final result but it was enough to show that Easy Tiger still has to work hard for victory in this super closely contested Championship.
Crews packed up their boats, having enjoyed 13 races, and assembled on the magnificent lawns of Ocean Marina to await results and presentations. Scott Finsten presented the awards, and as usual all teams were invited to the podium to receive their 'bottles' as a way to acknowledge that it is not just the winners that we should congratulate. All crews are equally respected for taking part.
The three podium places went to Easy Tiger on 17 points, Pine Pacific (30 points) and Team Doolalie (43 points).
Thanks go to:
- Scott Finsten and Ocean Marina Yacht club for supporting this Championship with on-water facilities and excellent office staff to handle the paperwork
- Doug Smith as ever for his background assistance with crews and boats.
- Toby Thanathorn for the photos.
And especially to all the crews who make this such a great Championship with their friendly attitude off the water and fiercely competitive racing afloat.
No animals were harmed during the running of this event but we are proud to announce that the Committee Boat crew rescued a domestic budgie which was later given a good home by Nathan from team Le Vent.
Overall Results:
1 Easy Tiger 027, 2,1,2,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,4, 17pts
2 Pine Pacific 1 154, 1,1,1,3,2,4,2,2,5,5,2,2, 30pts
3 Team Doolalie 118, 3,3,3,2,3,3,6,3,4,3,4,6, 43pts
4 Pine Pacific 2 258, 2,5,5,5,4,2,4,7,2,2,5,14, 57pts
5 Team FLS 124, 4,4,4,4,5,6,5,5,6,4,3,8, 58pts
6 Le Vent 122, 3,4,6,6,6,5,3,4,3,7,7,14, 68pts
NEXT ROUND: 10-12 June 2022.